First Published in 1988 by Superior Software Ltd. Copyright (c)
Mark Cullen, P.J.M.Irvin & J.C.Smith, 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this
material may be reproduced by any means without the prior consent of the
copyright holders.

Written by Mark Cullen, assisted by P.J.M. Irvin & J.C. Smith.

Prologue

There are some individuals whose actions mark them as unfit to
live within a civilised society. Your crimes have been of a horrifyingly
barbaric nature and throughout this trial you have failed to exhibit even the
slightest vestige of remorse. Although it gives me no pleasure to pass such a
sentence, we must act to protect the Innocent We decree that your presence
within this society can no longer be tolerated.'

(Extract from Trial ZZ5732Beta, taken from justice Directorate
tapes).

As the 'Pericles' moved into orbit around the alien planet,
Commander David Sprake stood at his viewing screen, lost in thought. He knew
that his career in the Force, and his prospects for promotion, depended on this
mission. This was the one that mattered, the one that everybody hack home would
analyse in detail. For this was the Columbus Force's five hundredth mission.

Sprake's mind ran over the history of the Force. In the twenty
first century, the population explosion drove humanity out into the galaxy in a
desperate search for planets to colonise. A powerful group of influential people
collaborated to form a military organisation which could explore uncharted space
with maximum efficiency. This organisation was the Columbus Force, and its
backers - an uneasy alliance of the wealthy and the intellectual - pooled their
resources in the search for habitable worlds. They found no planets similar to
the Earth. The vast majority could never be suitable for humankind, while those
that were could sustain only an uncomfortable existence in drab, hermetically
sealed environments.

The search, however continued. Once a planet was located, an
initial unmanned probe (known colloquially as a dwarfie) would establish whether
there was any possibility of it supporting human life. If this proved
favourable, a manned probe would follow to explore the new discovery in more
detail. These were the Columbus Probes.

One such follow-up craft was the 'Pericles'. When a dwarfie
returned favourable data from a large planet, the 'Pericles' was launched on the
long journey to the new world, named Phoebus. Its mission: to investigate and to
report.

Sprake was snapped out of his reverie by a call from Spiegel
demanding that he check the armoury before they landed to make sure all weapons
were in working order 'Ever the optimist, aren't you, Spiegel?' Sprake replied.
'I'll be right down'.

Sprake was the highest ranking Columbus Force officer on board.
A tall, silver haired man in his late thirties, he had attained the rank of
Commander unexpectedly after many years of undistinguished service as a
second-in command on other ships. While serving as Deputy Commander on a mission
to investigate an unknown planet, Sprake was forced to assume command when his
superior officer was poisoned by an alien gas. Sprake's remarkable courage and
valour in sealing infected corridors and saving the rest of the crew led to his
immediate promotion.

Chief Scientist on the 'Pericles' was Professor Hans Spiegel, an
abrasive, middle-aged man of German extraction whose arrogance made him the
least popular crew member. His scientific brilliance was renowned but Sprake had
never trusted him and did not relish the prospect of having to rely on him in a
crisis. This mission had been very much a project of Spiegel's, and he was the
crew member most eager to reach the planet.

Ship's doctor was Lieutenant Christine Pieters, an attractive
blonde woman in her late twenties, who was also an expert on hydroponics. With
her she had brought a pet, which she discovered on another planet. This was a
small, affectionate creature known as a furling. A ball of lavender hair, its
tiny face rarely visible, the animal purred and seemed to be a distant cousin of
the Earth cat. She had named it Fluffy.

Ship's psychologist was Captain Sun Pahn, a temperamental
Chinese who would be called upon to build up good relations, if possible, with
any alien life forms that might be encountered on the planet. During the 'Pericles'
lengthy journey, Pahn had succeeded in establishing a good relationship with
Christine Pieters, and there had been some talk of marriage.

Ship's geologist: Captain Colin Lowry, a quiet, elderly
scientist whose role would be the testing of samples from the planet's surface.

Deputy Commander was Lieutenant Anthony Nash, a tall, calm
officer with a military background and a record of impeccable service. He had
helped to draw up the most recent edition of the Columbus Force Directives
Manual.

Also on board were Miss Tessara Swift, a cheerful, pushy young
journalist assigned to the mission in accordance with the Columbus Force's
standing agreement with the Information Directorate, and Acting Lieutenant Zinc
Baker, a hot-headed whizzkid fresh from college and in training for eventual
command.

This was the full human complement of the crew. In addition
there were ten robots, five of them of the Velcro design, that is with the
facility for speech and a degree of intelligence. On landing, the robots would
undertake all tasks involving manual labour.

As the 'Pericles' prepared to attempt a descent, Commander
Sprake found himself at the viewing screen, gazing at the deep red surface of
another planet hanging like a hungry spider in the endless, engulfing night of
Space. After two decades in the Force he still felt a sense of wonder at sights
no human had previously witnessed, and experienced a thrill of discovery when
exploring a new planet. Sprake was not driven by a philanthropic desire to find
a place his fellow humans could call home, but by the ceaseless quest for the
novel and exciting. He looked up at the mysterious mass looming large on the
screen and felt his heart begin to beat harder as a robot began the countdown to
planetfall....

"Planet: Code H247A79. Name: Phoebus. Mission: to make an
intensive study of planet to determine its suitability as a colony. Reporting
Officer: Commander David Sprake. Reporting frequency: Daily.

"We have landed, but it was not easy. The planet seems to be
rather more hostile than the unmanned probe suggested. As we descended the ship
was battered by extremely fierce winds which for some reason had not been
detected by the dwarfie..."

The winds were so powerful that at one point they threatened to
blow the ship out of control. Sprake, sitting in his command chair, felt the
ship lurch and shouted at Lowry for an explanation.

Lowry spoke without lifting his head from his console. 'We're
being blown off trajectory, Commander'.

'Well -' Sprake cut short his reply as an enormous lurch threw
him out of his seat. People fell to the floor and warning klaxons sounded.

'Spiralling out of control', reported the computer in an
infuriatingly calm tone. 'Stabilizing Servos malfunctioning.'

Sprake dragged himself up and wedged himself into a gap in the
control panel. The ship was heading towards the planet's surface at a wild rate
- if he didn't act they would all be dead in seconds. For a brief, terrifying
moment Sprake's mind went blank. He stared at the rows of lights and switches,
his head flooded with panic and his training lost in a mental whirlpool of
frenzied confusion. As the powerful ship plummeted towards the planet's surface,
Sprake held himself upright, his hands tightly gripping the sides of the
console, his knuckles white.

For a few seconds the console in front of him made no sense.
Sprake forced himself to concentrate, tried to turn his mind to the flight
principles that had been drilled into him... Spiegel's voice hollering 'Do
something! You're going to kill us all!' roused him and he grabbed the
seldom-used Manual Stabilizer.

'Give me manual control!' he barked.

'We're not going to make it!' shouted Pahn.

'Computer! Manual control!' bellowed Sprake above the din of the
winds buffeting furiously against the ship.

'Manual control,' confirmed the computer.

'Right.' Gritting his teeth, Sprake peered at the small screen
on the console which showed the ship's position. There she was, and there was
the wind; the savage, relentless wind that swept the planet's surface. Their
only hope was to stop the descent and try to push through the wind looking for a
clearing, if there were any.

Sprake grasped the Stabilizer and, summoning all his strength,
pushed it to its highest level. The ship's engines screamed their strained
complaint, but slowly, interminably, the 'Pericles' came to a halt.

Sprake instantly moved his hands to the direction levers and
sent the ship on a horizontal course at maximum thrust. The crew members who had
managed to remain standing during the descent were knocked to the floor by the
sudden shift. Only Sprake, wedged into the console, stayed on his feet. The
squeal of the engines as he pushed them to maximum capacity accompanied the
raging winds in a nightmarish cacophony. Suddenly they were out. The winds had
stopped, the ship was safe. Sprake immediately cut the acceleration and pressed
the Descent Stabilizer. The ship lost height and, with one final shudder, came
to a halt on the ground.

People pulled themselves up and gave vent to a communal sigh of
relief. Acting Lieutenant Baker, his relief spilling into laughter, said, 'Are
we dead? I never thought Heaven would look like this. I imagined there'd be a
few more beautiful women around'.

'If we're dead, Baker', said Sun Pahn, 'we must have gone to
Hell. Because he's with us.' He gestured at Spiegel, who was brushing himself
down. Baker laughed, while Spiegel greeted the jibe with a baleful glare.

Sprake asked Lieutenant Nash where they were. Nash reported that
they had entered the only area within reach of his scanners where strong winds
were not howling across the planet's surface. This was a strangely calm gap
approximately half a kilometre wide. 'Great flying, Commander,' he added,
grinning.

Thanks. Let's have a look at this place. After that descent I'll
be extremely happy to get my feet on solid ground.'

Following the noisy descent the quiet peace after they landed
seemed almost eerie. Touchdown was completed successfully although the landing
gear sank very deep into the surface gravel. Sprake led a party out to begin
their preliminary exploration. Professor Spiegel refused to come. He had taken
an irrational dislike to the planet, based on the fact that the dwarfie hadn't
registered the winds and what he called 'intuition... a feeling that we will
have trouble here'.

'You wanted to come to this planet, Spiegel,' Sprake observed. 'The background
reports I read stated that you were very keen to join this mission.'

'I was keen to join any mission,' replied the professor 'The
funding of my various projects has been temporarily suspended while the Force
investigates some ludicrous allegations of misconduct, so I have nothing else to
do at the moment. The allegations are, of course, quite without foundation.'

'Of course.'

Spiegel spent the rest of the day in the ship's lab continuing
his experiments on service robots. This was a pet project of his although he
refused to tell anybody exactly what he was doing.

Sprake gazed at the landscape before him. A barren desert, a
lifeless empty nothing. The ground was uninviting, treacherous soft mud, black
as a magpie's wing, dotted with gravel. It stretched out before them, an
infertile void, broken only by the occasional rocky knoll jutting up from the
harsh surface like a broken tooth out of a dead man's gum. The only plants to be
seen were a few small, pale green bushes and clumps of moss, pitifully weak
apologies for foliage, growing in the shadow of the rocks.

The air was clammy, somehow unpleasant, calm yet stagnant. And
cold. Very cold. Sprake pulled his suit tight around him and shivered. Sun Pahn
spoke first.

'Well, here it is, people. The garden of Eden.'

Sprake looked up at the sky. It was a savage dark blue roof over
a grisly world. Black clouds swept through a brutal, tempestuous sky. In the
distance on all sides they could hear the winds. Winds of hate. Winds that
battered the rest of the planet, that beat unremittingly across its scarred
surface in a ceaseless turmoil. The 'Pericles' may have landed in a clearing,
but there was little there to cheer its crew.

They stood in silence, a small lonely group, shivering and
huddling instinctively together as they surveyed their new home. A vacant, bleak
landscape, that somehow exuded an almost physical misery.

Sprake gulped. Was this blackness, this cold, cheerless, dead
planet, to be the new Earth for their people?

Only Captain Lowry found the environment interesting. He spent
the morning collecting soil and rock samples, then swiftly arranged his drilling
apparatus near the ship and began the process of boring into the ground. 'He's
been boring for years', remarked Spiegel. The nonvocal robots were digging out
rocks, under the supervision of Robot Stuvo, who was as usual berating them for
their supposed indolence. Also involved was the robot they named Chatter. This
robot had been designed as a vocal, but last minute difficulties with its design
prevented the Vocprog from being input correctly. Sleek and compact, it carried
out its tasks with supreme efficiency, but its inability to speak clearly meant
that its comments often emerged as a garbled babble. It won everyone's affection
on the first day of the mission when, after everyone had endured Robot Stuvo's
complaints for hours, it responded with the uncharacteristically audible 'Shall
I eliminate source of unessential noise?'

Lunch took place, as usual, in the ship's small refectory area.
Sprake had hoped to organise a meal outside, but the planet surface was so
uninvitingly arid that
nobody wanted to eat there. The crew sat around the table, eating in silence for
some minutes. The initial relief that had swept through them when they landed in
one piece had been dissipated by the disappointment of the planet's surface, and
the atmosphere was gloomy.

'Cheer up,' Sprake exhorted. 'You can't judge a book by its
cover.

'You can't judge a Commander by his clichés,' murmured Spiegel.

'We've only seen a small section of this planet. There's much
more of it, you know. Other parts may be completely different.'

'The Commander's right,' said Baker through a mouthful of
hydroponic lettuce.
'Think how the geography of the Earth varies between continents. There might be
a paradise here somewhere.'

'You can't judge a book by its sycophantic reviews.'

'What are you on about, Spiegel?' Baker snapped angrily. 'Why
are you always so sour and pessimistic? You criticise everybody, you hate
everything, you never
offer valid suggestions of your own.

'Pessimism is realism, boy,' snarled the German. 'If you live
long enough, you'll soon lose that ridiculous naive optimism of yours.

'You do seem to be something of a fatalist,' observed Sun Pahn.

Spiegel chuckled humourlessly. 'Well, well. Even the Chinaman
stops stuffing his face long enough to join in the character assassination.'

Sprake buried his head and concentrated on his meal as the
argument raged on.
His attempt to raise spirits had engendered yet another bitter row. He had hoped
the bickering would stop once they landed. He caught Tessara Swift's eye. She
was watching proceedings carefully. Sprake wondered what her bulletins home
sounded like. As far as crew relations were concerned, they were hardly likely
to paint a cheerful picture.

By evening they had found little of interest so spirits were flagging, until
Captain Sun Pahn and Lieutenant Christine Pieters announced their intention to
marry. This cheered them all up.

Sprake arranged for the robots to spend the night (which lasted
six hours) digging deep into the ground to check for water or useful minerals-
as yet there was no significant evidence of either being present.

"The terrain is bleak... the windy environment has limited the
surface vegetation to tough grass and small bushes. The ground is dark gravelly
mud. The air is breathable but weak, for strenuous activity space suits
providing oxygen enhancement are necessary. Crew members, particularly Acting
Lieutenant Baker, enjoyed themselves by flying about using the jetpacks,
relieved to have some freedom after so long cooped up on the ship. The scanners
tell us that the gravitational acceleration at planet surface is 7.8 metres per
second per second.

"Overall It doesn't look promising... perhaps we are wasting our
time here..."

Day Two

"Today we made our first discovery. I was on the ship when I heard
cries of excitement from outside..."

Captain Lowry had been taking bore samples when the ground gave
way to reveal a deep pit below the surface. One of the robots fell in but
fortunately Lowry was safely away from the hole at the time. Hearing the
excitement outside, Sprake rushed out from the ship to find Spiegel and Baker
engaged in a heated argument. There had been tension between them ever since
they met. Spiegel's abrasive arrogance and Baker's endless youthful enthusiasm
had clashed, causing countless rows.

Now they were bellowing at each other about the pit, violently
disagreeing on the best way to investigate it. Sprake hollered at them to shut
up and Spiegel gave him a look you could slice bread with. Sprake pushed past
them and jetted down into the dark hole himself. Tessara Swift was already
there, having jetted to a ledge near the bottom, taking photographs for the
Information Directorate. Sprake landed next to her and looked around. They were
in a steep-sided pit some four metres in depth. The ledge protruded from the
wall of the pit, and, Sprake realised as his eyes became accustomed to the
gloom, it led to an opening in the wall through which he could see what appeared
to be a cave. 'Come and have a look at this!' he shouted to the others, who
followed him down as he walked along the ledge...

The cave was lit by a curious luminous green moss clinging to the walls. The
ground was littered with rocks and small bushes. At the rear of the cave was the
entrance to a tunnel which was just large enough for a man to pass through by
bending his back. Baker volunteered to go into the tunnel alone, but Sprake
would hear none of it. Spiegel called Baker an 'ambitious military careerist'
which provoked another argument; it was hardly a fair remark - Spiegel might be
a prize-winning biologist (his work on the marine life of Armatax 17 had made
him famous) but Baker was no mere soldier, as his research on cryogenics
testified.

Eventually Lieutenant Nash had to step in as the row seemed
liable to spill over into violence. Sprake assembled a party to explore the
tunnel, comprising himself, Spiegel, Christine Pieters, the Robot Stuvo and a
nonvocal defensive robot. Nash was left in charge.

Baker complained bitterly about being left out. Although he
didn't deserve the barrage of abuse Spiegel fired at him, Sprake mused, Baker
could be very immature, with an undisciplined eagerness that could well lead him
unprepared into danger. Until Baker learnt to rein in that enthusiasm, Sprake
doubted that he would be suitable for command.

They called this first discovery Banquo Cave. They discovered
that it led down into a network of caves and tunnels below the planet's surface.
(There was no Columbus Force policy on the naming of locations found on alien
planets - this was left up to the Commander. Sprake, a Shakespeare buff, liked
to name such locations after characters from the Bard's plays.)

They moved cautiously down a rocky slope into the first long,
dark tunnel ahead of them. The moss provided lighting. Silence surrounded them
like a glove.

'It's good to get away from those winds,' Christine Pieters
smiled.

'Quiet!' barked Spiegel angrily. 'We shouldn't chatter like
schoolgirls. Anything could be up ahead of us and any conversation could let it
know of our presence. Voices can be heard for hundreds of metres in a cave
system like this.'

'I was only making an observation,' Christine retorted, her eyes
flashing.

Some dust, dislodged by the activity, fell from the cave ceiling
onto Spiegel. As he brushed them off his suit he looked up at Christine, a scowl
colouring his thin, malevolent face. 'Somehow, I think I can survive without
your inane observations.'

'See here, Spiegel - '

Sprake stepped forward. 'That's enough, children. Professor
Spiegel may have the courtesy and tact of a drug-crazed bull, but on this
occasion he's right. Let's keep conversation to a minimum.'

They moved onward into the caves to continue their investigation. They were
below ground for the rest of the morning.

The jetpacks enabled them to fly around the tunnels and caverns.
Here and there they found constructed walls sealing off caves. It seemed as
though the planet had been the base of a mining community, however there was no
sign of any resource that might have been mined, although they did trace water -
there were occasional pools located in the darker recesses. Most of the caves
were dimly lit by the luminescent moss. Due to the weakness of the air they
needed their suits and backpacks.

I am fascinated by this veritable warren of a cave system and
wonder what has become of its inhabitants. Certainly there must, at one time,
have been habitation by an intelligent civilisation. Where are they now? Why is
there no sign of them on the surface or in the caves we have explored? Have they
simply moved further down into the heart of this mysterious planet?"

Day Three

"We have decided to set up our base in the cave system. There is evidence that
the ground can support food crops - Lieutenant Pieters has managed to grow some
plants from the ship in the caves here.

"Spiegel is conducting experiments on the air to see if it could
be altered. As he never ceases to boast he was once part of the legendary team
that devised the Enegel Atmosphere Purifier which has enabled us to make the air
breathable on numerous planets.

"He also worked on the Sunbather[Computer note - Editorial:
'Sunbather, slang term for the process patented by Prof. E. Lomas, Cambridge
Univ., 2173, which can change atmospheric conditions and weather on many
planets. So he thinks that given time he might be able to enrich the air with
more oxygen and remove those winds from the surface.

So the planet looks good for colonising, initially underground
habitation is advised though. Much of today was spent moving equipment down to
the larger caves near the surface, I always find removing the non-essential
superstructure of the ship a tedious chore so I kept out of the way.

"Tess Swift came to me to report that her jetpack had failed.
Like the rest of our jetpacks, it Is of the new Gothard design which has not
previously been used on a Force mission. We tried changing the Power Pack, but
that didn't work. This is worrying. I hope there isn't some design fault that
will affect the others.

Miss Swift seems to be a typical journalist, pushing past everybody else eagerly
whenever anything new is discovered. I wish the Columbus Force could negotiate
more restrictions on the freedom of the press."

As he left his cabin after speaking to Tessara Swift, Sprake
heard Robot Stuvo shouting at Nonvocal 4, an unfortunate robot which had been
malfunctioning since they left. Nonvocal 4 had developed a fault in its
manoeuvre program and frequently bumped into people and furniture. If he'd had a
robotics expert on board Sprake would have had it repaired, if only to stop
Robot Stuvo complaining about it. The pair of them were busy removing some of
Christine Pieters' medical cabinets to take down to the caves.

Christine was in the ship's Sick Bay, feeding Fluffy with some
sweets. The creature purred contentedly. Suddenly its manner changed to one of
anger, and it began to squeal. Christine looked up to see that Spiegel had
entered the room.

'Have you got anything for this cut?' he asked. 'I had a slight
argument with a door'

'Oh dear,' said Christine. 'You really shouldn't argue with your
intellectual superiors, Spiegel.' She reached for a dressing and handed it to
the professor

As Spiegel moved to the table to apply the plaster, the furling
bit his hand. Spiegel recoiled and rubbed the injury, looking with hatred at the
bundle of fur 'Can't you control that confounded little rat?' he demanded.

'Sorry, Spiegel. He's never done that before.'

'It had better not do it again,' threatened the German as he
stormed out.

The day was not without further arguments. Spiegel dominated
proceedings, managing to have his computers and workbenches moved first,
although by midday Sprake persuaded him to lend his personal robots to assemble
teleport termini in some caves. These would be necessary for the nonvocal
robots, which were not equipped with jetpacks, and would also save the crew from
clambering up and down.

Spiegel had assembled all his equipment in a large cave which he
seemed already to consider his private laboratory; when Captain Pahn tried to
install a scanner in it Spiegel shouted abuse at him. 'Keep out of here, you
slant-eyed imbecile!' roared Spiegel. 'If you interfere with any of my
experiments I'll make you wish you never set foot on this stinking planet.'

The other crew members noticed how immaculate and expensive
Spiegel's equipment was; even his two personal robots were ultra-modern Remrobs
with the sleek design associated with top casing designer Terence Prince.

'They must have cost a fortune', thought Sprake. Rumour had it
that Spiegel was working in his spare time for Proton Chemicals, who were highly
generous to their trusted employees. The stories said they were involved in
illegal corpse revival techniques but Spiegel wasn't likely to have any qualms
about that. 'He's got about as many principles as a fish has got feet', Sprake
commented to Lowry.

The installation of rooms within the caves continued. Christine
Pieters supervised Stuvo, who was making alterations to the cave she had decided
she wanted to occupy. The first task was to put in a door. For this a hollow was
dug into the wall. The door would be activated by touching a panel, causing it
to slide open into the slot. The rock formation forced Christine Pieters to
install a horizontally sliding door

After this Stuvo was instructed to build a wall to support a
section of the cave roof which Christine thought looked unstable. 'Get a move
on, Stuvo,' she admonished the robot gently, as it wedged the last few bricks in
place.

'Oh yes,' said Stuvo, warming to his theme and with, Christine
thought, a note of pride in his voice. 'I was one of his personal robots.
Accompanied him all over the Earth. He exhibited me at the Paris Leisure Robots
Collection. He never asked me to build walls.'

'Well, times change, Stuvo,' said Christine, zipping up her
space suit and pulling on her helmet. 'In robot terms you're now almost
obsolete. Never mind - I still like you.'

'Thank you, madam.'

'Now clear up that mess,' Christine said, pointing at the various tools Stuvo
had left on the cave floor, 'I want this place spotless by the time I get back.'

'Harrummph!' replied the robot. 'Yet more orders.'

Christine smiled as she walked to the door 'That one isn't an
order, Stuvo. That's a request. So can you do it. Please?'

'As you put it that way, certainly, madam. I must say it makes a
refreshing change to meet a human with some manners.'

Later in the afternoon Sprake came across two robots arguing.
Robot Stuvo and the robot they nicknamed Toff were loudly disagreeing about the
most expedient way to unpack some boxes. Toff had been programmed with the
personality of an English aristocrat of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.
'Egad, sir', it was saying, 'would you have me remove the highest box first?
You're a disgrace, sir, a disgrace to your school and your regiment!'

'I do not comprehend', said Stuvo flatly.

'Gad, sir, would you have me challenge you to a duel?'

Sprake separated the pair before they attacked each other.
Robots like Toff, given colourful programs, were briefly entertaining but could
become tiresome. He preferred straightforward non vocals. They were much less
trouble.

A few minutes later Nash reported that two of the nonvocal
robots had vanished. A brief search of the 'Pericles' and its surrounding area
failed to produce them. An
exasperated Sprake, collapsing into a chair on the command deck, pulled off his
helmet and ran a hand through his greying ham

'The last time anyone remembers seeing them they were digging
near the entrance to the cave system. All I can think of is that they've
malfunctioned and wandered
off across the surface or down through the caves.'

'Well, it's not important, but it is a nuisance. Let's hope it
doesn't happen to any of the others.'

Sprake arranged for the customary defensive safeguards to be
installed. At
strategic points around the perimeter of the base he placed Gun Turrets. These
weapons, nicknamed Burgers, were heavy cylindrical devices which responded to
the approach of any unidentified life form by firing a stun bulletin their
direction.

The crew discovered the presence of radiation in the caves.
Their Geiger counters had begun to register it as soon as they moved out of
Banquo Cave, but at that level it was extremely low. The deeper they explored
below the surface, however, the greater the incidence of radiation, although it
was still low enough to be safe. Sprake instructed Lowry to inform him
immediately if anyone encountered a dangerously contaminated area. Also in some
caves they found glowing rocks composed largely of coronium which, Spiegel
observed, could be converted into nuclear fuel without much difficulty.

Over dinner Captain Sun Pahn regaled them all with tales of his
Chinese heritage and the many illustrious names in his family's history. This
led to everyone talking about their families, apart from the naturally shy
Lowry, who excused himself, and the perpetually antisocial Spiegel, who left
after the first course, calling the meal 'inedible garbage.'

Day Four

'Tremendous excitement today. There is life here in the form of small humanoids.
Christine Pieters called in with a garbled message from the deepest cave we have
so far explored, saying she'd been attacked by some creatures but had held them
at bay..."

When Sprake and the others got down there they found a group of
ten ape-like creatures. Each was about one metre in height, covered in thick
yellow hair, and wore a fibrous light blue tunic. The head had a large skull
with a domed forehead and a bulbous, boneless nose. They looked to be physically
weaker than an adult human. As the crew members arrived, they herded together at
the cave mouth, emitting a series of high-pitched squeaks.

They gave the impression of being decidedly unfriendly but,
thought Sprake, were hardly likely to endanger the mission.

'They rushed at me', Christine informed the others, 'so I had to
kill one with my icer'. This had caused the aliens to stop instantly and
transform into the scowling mass they saw before them, huddled together in the
mouth of the cave. When Robot Stuvo followed the others into the cave, the
creatures squealed with fear and something close to recognition. 'It's almost as
if they have encountered robots before', murmured Spiegel.
Suddenly the aliens ran together towards the cave entrance, and people stepped
forward but Sprake shouted 'Stay where you are!' The creatures fled out of the
cave, throwing a few desultory stones back as they ran.

So ended the morning's excitement. Spiegel dragged away the body
of the dead alien for analysis, while Sprake discussed with Sun Pahn the
possibility of winning their friendship. 'There's little chance of that', said
Pahn, 'they're savages, incorrigibly hostile'. Sprake wasn't so sure. He felt
Pahn was probably biased - his first wife had been torn limb from limb by an
ape-like being on Beta Stroten. A passing Professor Spiegel opined that these
entities were 'brainless monkeys' who should be 'systematically wiped out'.

They named the cave where the encounter had occurred Polonius
Cave.

Lieutenant Nash and Stuvo spent the day exploring the caves to
the west, but found nothing exceptional to report. However Nash's jetpack
inexplicably stopped working and he had to take Robot Stuvo's. Stuvo made his
disapproval known in no uncertain manner. When they returned to Banquo Cave,
Sprake called out to Nash. 'Have those nonvocals turned up yet?'

'No, Commander. Can't find them anywhere,' answered the
Lieutenant, adding 'Pity it wasn't a vocal that went missing,' with an irritable
glance at Stuvo, who was still complaining about being deprived of his jetpack.

The others continued to dismantle the ship and install equipment
in the caves, also
Captain Lowry busied himself putting in some airlocks there to seal off various
caves so that masks would not be needed in them. Sprake offered to assist him
but
Lowry declined, as always preferring to work alone.

Spiegel instructed his robots to remove a section of the ship's
engine and install it in the cave he had commandeered as his laboratory. This
section had been damaged by the battering they suffered from the winds, so
Spiegel decided to effect the necessary repairs. He had not seen fit to request
Sprake's permission to do this, but Sprake chose not to argue the point. There
had been enough ill feeling already on the mission, without exacerbating the
situation by debating a minor breach of protocol.

During the afternoon Spiegel returned to the ship's Sick Bay to
change the dressing on his hand. He found it empty apart from Fluffy who lay on
the table. The animal quivered as Spiegel approached. 'Well my pretty, all alone
are you?' Spiegel murmured, gazing contemptuously at the cowering furling. 'I
think it's time I taught you a lesson, don't you?'

He noticed a hammer that lay on a nearby table. Smiling broadly,
Spiegel's hand closed on the weapon and raised it above his head. 'Bite me,
would you, you vicious little beast?'

The animal squealed in terror, but at that moment the door opened and Christine
entered. 'Spiegel! Put that down!' she shouted.

Reluctantly Spiegel lowered the weapon. 'What do you think
you're doing?' said Christine, scooping the terrified pet into her arms. 'Get
out of here, you sadistic bully!'

Spiegel headed for the door 'That animal should be destroyed,'
he said as he left, 'it could carry diseases.

Later that day Nash informed Sprake that he had seen some birds
in Polonius Cave, small white creatures with long wings that flew away at speed
when they saw him. He reported them to be very similar to some species of bird
found on Earth.

The contrast between metal and stone in the caves made them
aesthetically attractive. Some of the crew planned to start sleeping there once
Lowry installed the airlocks, as they found the space preferable to the cramped
conditions of the ship.

Day Five

"Today robot Toff and I joined Nash and Pahn in their exploration of the tunnels
and caves to the west. We came upon a particularly long passage ending in some
caverns, where we discovered a strange rune-engraved slab on the ground. It is
made of some metal alloy unfamiliar to us and it could be a portal leading down
somewhere, since we can find no other exit from the cavern it is in. Above the
cavern was a hole in the roof through which we could see the savage winds
blasting across the angry star-scattered sky.

There were symbols carved on the slab, they had no conception of
the meaning. Captain Pahn who majored in Cryptology resolved to try and unravel
the mystery. Robot Toff, asked if any such code was registered in its memory
bank, replied, 'Fraid not, old kipper. Doesn't mean a bally thing to me. Bit of
a puzzler, what?'

No amount of force could move the slab, they even tried plasma
guns to no avail, these failed to even scratch the surface. Not a mark was made.
The ground around it was nearly as hard. If it was a portal, whoever closed it
clearly wanted the entrance to stay sealed. As the caverns had ended with no
apparent way to continue any further to the west, the slab was their only hope
for progress in that direction.

Sprake observed that it might be worthwhile dismantling the 'Pericles'
Molecular Transducer and reassembling it down there. 'If that doesn't blow the
damn portal open then I'm a Dutchman', he added.

At this point Sprake's communicator crackled and he heard the voice of Acting
Lieutenant Baker 'Commander there are some more of those imp creatures back
here, but they aren't causing us any problems'. Sprake hurried to the nearest
transporter booth and teleported back to find another group of the aliens in a
large cave they had called Nimoy's Cave. This collection had green hair and red
tunics and carried no weapons. Indeed they seemed to be terrified of the crew,
whimpering and squealing with fear. When Tessara Swift took a photo of them they
leapt in terror.

'Put that camera away!' ordered Sprake but she ignored him.
Christine Pieters offered the strangers some fruit, they snatched it and gobbled
it down.

'Commander,' said Sun Pahn, 'this tribe are of the same species
as the ones we encountered yesterday, but are obviously less hostile. I wonder
if the two tribes get on with each other?'

They spent the rest of the day making friends with the
creatures, who were very curious about their new acquaintances.

"The imps, as we have taken to calling them, can be endearing
but they do have a habit of stealing things! I lost some Power Packs and later
found that an imp had concealed them, together with various other items it had
purloined, in a hole. The green imps have become friendly toward us, and have
taken a particular shine to Christine Pieters, perhaps because she made the
first gesture of friendship.

Most of the crew were smilingly pleasant to their new friends in
return, excepting Sun Pahn who recalled his wife's fate and Professor Spiegel
who was as aggressive as ever.

Day Six

"Woke up to find a green imp in my bedroom rifling through my cabinet! When I
shouted he fled like a frightened gazelle but with one of my best shirts in his
hand. Later I saw him dancing about in the shirt to the obvious amusement of his
cronies".

Christine Pieters discovered that a gold locket, in which she
kept a prized photograph of her parents, had disappeared from her cabinet.
Guessing that the culprit was an imp, she searched their hiding places. She
found an imp clutching the locket. As she approached it leapt into its nest
where it lay cowering. Christine had, however, come prepared. She held out a
handful of sweets and indicated that her price was the locket. The imp happily
threw it over and greedily snatched the sweets. Christine smiled as she watched
the creature chewing. The imps loved to eat and offering food was a sure way of
persuading them to do something.

Later that morning, the crew discovered to the east an enormous
shaft with a powerful wind surging up it. The shaft was pitch dark and, they
estimated, at least two hundred metres deep. If you leapt into the shaft, the
strength of the wind kept you floating suspended in mid-air. As they were unable
to drop anything into the abyss, Lowry provided a method for estimating the
depth. He exploded a small grenade at the top of the shaft. This sent sound
waves down to the bottom which were reflected back, and, having timed the echo
and measured the speed of the air-flow at the top, he went to the nearest cave
and determined the speed of sound in the stationary air there. By comparing the
two he was able to estimate the depth of the shaft.

Acting Lieutenant Baker had tremendous fun in the shaft,
floating for nearly an hour at one point. when he tired of this he asked Sprake
if he could explore beyond the deepest caves they had discovered. Everyone said
he was too naive and inexperienced to lead any expedition himself, but his
enthusiasm won Sprake over. Sprake dispatched Vocal Robot 2 to accompany him on
a trip into the intertwining caves and tunnels below them, while the rest of the
crew would explore to the east.

Out to the east they found the yellow imps dwelling, a spartan
collection of
rocks and plants interspersed with tables and chairs which they presumed had
belonged to the mining community.

Watching the imps sitting in a circle around a table to eat
their meal of plants and grubs, in the shadow-filled half-light, Sprake felt an
exhilarating fascination creep over him. The imps, their small faces glinting in
the luminescent glow emanating from the moss, forced the food into their mouths
and, when the meal was finished, each licked its partners paws clean.

'This is why I'm here,' Sprake said quietly to no-one in
particular 'What's that, Commander?' asked Sun Pahn, who was standing next to
him. 'Fascinating, isn't it Pahn?'

Pahn smiled to himself. He was used to seeing only the
world-weary, cynical veteran side of the Commander's character It was good to
know even a Force
Commander could be thrilled by the wonders they were witnessing.

They were snapped out of their reverie by Sprake's communicator
which brought the voice of Lieutenant Nash, asking them to return immediately,
his voice being almost drowned out by the sound of Baker singing loudly and
discordantly at the top of his voice.

There was no transporter nearby so Sprake asked Lowry to install
one. 'Can you rig up a pass control round it so that the imps don't stumble in
and start teleporting all over the damn planet?'

'I'll do my best', replied Lowry, pleased to have a challenge to undertake.

Arriving back at base they found Baker, clearly in some sort of
stupor, slumped on the ground mumbling to himself. Nash reported that Baker had
returned in this condition from his exploratory mission, his pockets crammed
with an odd mushroom-like plant.

Ship's doctor Christine Pieters examined Baker and analysed the
plant. Her report: that Baker was suffering from a drug-induced trance, and the
plant possessed qualities similar to those found in Earth hallucinogens. Simply,
Baker was stoned. As the evening wore on he recovered sufficiently to reveal
that he had seen the plants and felt compelled to inspect one because of their
similarity to Earth mushrooms. As he did so he trod on the edge of the plant, at
which point it exploded, showering him in fragments.

The result was a hallucinatory stupor, in the course of which he
imagined Vocal 3 to be a bear attacking him and fired his icer at it (this
damaged the robot beyond repair).

Sprake noticed Spiegel carrying some laser cutters into a
teleport booth. The Commander smiled as he watched Spiegel disappear, presumably
returning to his laboratory. If only he would disappear for good, Sprake mused.

He walked into Polonius Cave, where Lowry was huddled over a
bench studying some geological charts. As they began to discuss them, an
ear-splitting scream rent the air. Grabbing their icers they ran into the
adjoining cave where they found Christine Pieters and two long, slimy maggot
creatures. Christine had screamed when she saw the maggots crawling into the
cave but had quickly recovered her composure and was covering them with an icer

The maggots were not an attractive sight. Each was one third of
a metre in length, with yellow, slimy skins. They had no eyes but each possessed
a large mouth, opened to reveal a set of very sharp white teeth.

'Ugh,' said Christine. 'Charming little creatures, aren't they?'

The maggots were on the ground near the mouth of the cave. A
richly noxious aroma emanated from them which made Sprake feel nauseous.
Suddenly one of the maggots began to move speedily across the ground.

'Commander?' Christine asked, watching the creature's approach
with a mixture of revulsion and fear.

'Kill it,' instructed Sprake. Christine fired her icer at the
maggot, which immediately halted, the only indication that it was dead. Its
compatriot crawled out of the cave, making a squelching sound as it moved.

'Right, someone take that away for dissection,' Sprake ordered, turning gladly
away from the corpse. Lowry left to fetch a robot.

Some hours later Sprake stopped off to see how the dissection of
the maggot was going. Sun Pahn had divided the creature's body into sections,
and as Sprake approached he was absorbedly studying a sliver of its innards with
a powerful microscope.

Sprake's face tautened involuntarily as he looked down at the
remains of the slimy, repellent maggot. 'Well, Captain?' he asked, instinctively
looking up from the repugnant corpse. 'Anything to report?'

'This is very intriguing,' said Pahn, his head still bowed over
the microscope.

'What is?'

'Look, Commander' Pahn stood up and gestured to the stool.
Sprake sat, while Pahn removed the slide and inserted one he had been examining
earlier Sprake bent his head, closed one eye and peered down through the glass.
His throat tightened as a section of the maggot's pink internal organs leapt
into focus.

'Not a pretty sight, Pahn. But what is it?'

Pahn perched himself on an adjoining stool and folded his arms.
'You see that tiny black dot in the centre?'

'Yes.' Sprake squinted at the dot.

'Look.' Pahn leant forward and adjusted the magnification. The
dot was revealed as a perfectly spherical shape, deep shiny blue in colour
almost metallic in hue.

'What is it?'

Pahn poured himself a glass of water and took a sip from it.
'I've no idea. I've never seen anything like it inside a maggot before. Or any
other organic life form, for that matter I don't think it's natural.'

Sprake scratched his head as he left the lab. The planet was
turning out to be packed with incident and mystery. It was a relief that
evening, when the crew gathered and, for a time, forgot about the strange new
world around them.

Sun Pahn and Christine were clearly very much in love, and were
discussing a possible honeymoon on Disney planet. The evening was spent with the
married and divorced members of the party (Nash and Lowry) discussing their
honeymoons around the blazing log fire (a portable authentic twentieth century
model) that had been installed in the base.

"I have been notified that supplies are on their way. My orders
are to continue exploration"

Day Seven

"Today we were attacked by another party of imps, in a cave out to the east
which we have named Kennedy's cave. (I have decided to let my subordinates name
caves, as they complained about my Shakespeare obsession.)"

This group were all slightly taller than the other imps the crew
had encountered and were blue in colour. There were more of them too, about
sixteen in total. They went for Baker, who sighted them first, but he jetted
away. The crew decided to go after them. They advanced quietly along a tunnel,
where they could hear the imps jabbering. The crew members concealed themselves
behind a clump of bushes from which vantage point they could see into a huge
cave which was evidently this tribe's dwelling. The imps were dancing around a
roaring fire in what seemed to be a ritual of some kind. One was pounding rocks
to create a basic musical rhythm. The fire caused flickering shadows to dance
across the cave walls. It was a remarkable sight.

Suddenly a frenzied jabbering broke out behind the concealed
crew, and they turned to find several other blue imps approaching. The noise
interrupted the ritual, causing the main group to seize stones and spears and
head towards them.

For a few seconds the Columbus Force crew hoped that the two
groups were attacking each other, but this rapidly proved an overly hopeful
assessment. 'Fire at will!' shouted Sprake. Despite his party's superior weapons
they were outnumbered and in peril.

Spiegel's icer blasted a shot into one imp's head, and its
comrades all froze to stare as it fell in agony to the ground clutching its
crushed skull which the icer's beam had smashed a hole through. For a second it
looked as if the battle had ended there, but the imps quickly recovered their
nerve and charged from both sides. The icers blasted death but the imps hurled
rocks as they fell. One caught Captain Lowry a harsh blow on the temple, and he
staggered, dropping his icer.

'Move!' Sprake hollered, grabbing Lowry and pulling him along. The others
followed, jetting off down the tunnel, leaving several imps dead and the rest
howling with fury.

When the crew regrouped at the base, everyone was chattering
with excitement. They looked warily at the handful of green imps around, but
these seemed as amiable as ever Christine Pieters examined Lowry's head and
reported that the injury was not serious.

Sprake and Baker turned off their jetpacks to conserve fuel but
found when they tried to restart them that they weren't working.

"Could it be some effect of the atmosphere? We have no idea. It
means that most of us are now obliged to travel everywhere on foot, which will
limit our further exploration. Please send extra jetpacks as soon as possible."

Day Eight

What the hell, thought Baker The rest of the crew had him written off as an
idiot anyway, so he might as well do what he wanted. And what he wanted to do
was explore. Besides, if he did find something, his name would go down in the
Commander's report. Mentioned in dispatches and all that. Very useful for the
career of an ambitious officer.

Baker edged his way along a narrow tunnel at the end of Lear
Cave and out into a cave at the end.

It was sizeable with several openings leading elsewhere. The
walls were cracked, grey beneath the moss, and water dripped from the roof into
pools in the dark corners. Baker walked through the cave with caution. He
thought of his Force briefing on Solitary Exploration, and how his instructors
had emphasised the need for vigilance and concentration at all times - What was
that?

Baker whirled around. He had heard an unfamiliar noise, a sort
of buzzing, emanating from one of the cave exits. Hadn't he? He stood absolutely
still, his body quivering with tension. Now he could hear nothing. Had it been
his imagination? He could have sworn...

Then it emerged. Baker leapt back in horror and nearly dropped
his icer. Even when he had been drugged the previous day he hadn't imagined
anything as horrifying as this. And this was real. A giant wasp the size of a
large rock hovered above him. Its head was round, black, shiny, the size of a
football. Its body was divided into two parts, a short stubby torso and a long
tail with a yellow ring. Its huge wings were long, thin and powerful. It had
four yellow and black ringed legs that moved endlessly, helping it to balance in
the air The beating of the wings produced a buzzing sound whenever it moved, a
sound that, echoing off the cave walls, resembled the loudest of drills.

Baker had never been fond of Earth wasps. But this monster was
infinitely worse. Its sting might prove fatal. Baker stared into the creature's
oblique eyes, hoping that this version of the insect might possess more
intelligence than its Earth cousin. He entertained the notion that the thing
might speak. 'A talking wasp? Pull yourself together,' he muttered. The only way
it would express its intentions would be by actions.

Baker did not have long to wait. After hovering for a few
seconds, looking down quizzically, the wasp launched into a downward dive
towards him. The buzzing was deafening. Baker aimed his icer at its head, fired,
and then turned and ran for his life. He heard the buzzing stop, but he did not
return to see whether he had killed the creature. He ran at full speed through
the caves, swearing loudly to himself.

As he ran into Banquo Cave everyone turned to look. 'Have you
been near those plants again?' said Sprake angrily.

Baker fell gasping onto a rock, breathing fitfully through his
straining lungs. 'Not quite, Commander,' he wheezed between gulps of air

"Baker set off to explore, alone and without permission, and as
a result was nearly killed by a giant wasp. It is only his latest irresponsible
action. Since this mission began I have noticed a tendency in Baker to drink
overmuch and to gamble. While we were still at home he organised a drunken poker
game with two security guards, and knocked one out in the resultant brawl....
after today's behaviour no-one respects him. I recommend that his Acting
Lieutenant status be suspended after this mission.

"We have found that we can bargain with the green imps.
Curiously they are partial to sweets, If given a chocolate they will leave your
belongings alone. They are mischievous, they love to 'borrow' items and hide
them elsewhere. One of Tessara Swift's skirts turned up in Captain Lowry's
cabinet, this provoked some good-natured jibing from the other crew members. We
believe the more hostile imps to have come up from deep underground since
Lieutenant Nash reports seeing a blue imp crawling up the windy shaft."

Sprake omitted to mention in his report that he was worried by
the content of Tessara Swift's news bulletins which she transmitted daily. She
refused to let any of the crew hear these but Spiegel told Sprake that he was
passing her cabin (she still slept on the ship, unlike most of them) while she
was recording and heard her refer to him as "an indecisive, uncertain
commander."

Spiegel could, of course, be lying, mused Sprake. His hatred of
journalists was renowned and he and Miss Swift had had several blazing
arguments, with Spiegel making it perfectly clear that he considered her a kind
of spy and, to quote one of his more colourful phrases, 'a prying little worm
who should crawl under a stone and die'.

Sprake raised the matter with Miss Swift. 'I trust that you are
aware of the Columbus Force view on mission news reports?'

'That the reports should not contain any of the journalist's
personal opinions? Yes, I'm aware of that, Commander', she answered, smiling.
'Don't worry - I'm not including any'.

Looking into her attractive brown eyes, Sprake had no idea
whether she was telling him the truth. He knew that this mission would be under
the microscope back home and any unfavourable news could damage his career
badly. If any such subjective opinions were appearing in her reports, on
returning he would have to stress that they were her views only, not necessarily
shared by anybody else there...

Down in Kennedy Cave, Baker came upon a squirming mass of
maggots which moved rapidly towards him. He killed one and the others crawled
out of the cave. Pahn dissected the corpse and reported that, once more, the
maggot possessed a mysterious blue sphere.

They continued to explore, mainly in the tunnels off Lear Cave,
finding them empty apart from abandoned mining machinery. They found more
coronium rocks.

"Clever old Spiegel has modified robot Chatter's reactor to
convert small lumps of coronium into pure energy. On command he can be made to
release fully charged power pods which we can use to power all our equipment.
Judging by robot Chatter's chirping he is rather happy about this arrangement. I
suppose he enjoys the extra attention and the feeling of being useful - a basic
need of all robots."

Day Nine

The charts spread out over the desk might as well have been in Serbo-Croat
rhyming slang for all the sense they made to Sprake. A collection of tiny grey
dots, their peaks and troughs forming patterns, they spoke volumes to a
geologist about the make-up of the planet's rock strata but meant nothing to the
Commander. Sprake scratched his head and turned to the older man. 'Alright
Colin, I'm baffled. What do they mean?'

Lowry leant forward eagerly. 'From these seismological readings
we can tell that this planet has been in existence for eons. Look at this.' He
pointed to a jagged line along the bottom of the page. 'Something hard hit this
place then, about ten thousand years ago. Probably a meteor storm.'

'We're in Pascal's Cave. We came upon a group of blue imps
eating a dead green imp.'

'Charming. What happened?'

'They attacked us. We killed one or two and the others fled. I
thought I saw something in the distance...'

'What?'

'I'm not sure... it might have been an imp. But it was green,
bright green. And it looked tall. Two metres maybe. It fled with the others.'

'Interesting. Can you install a transporter down there?'

'Will do.'

Later that day Christine Pieters' jetpack became the latest to
fall victim to the strange phenomenon afflicting them - leaving the crew with
only two working units.

Day Ten

"The green imps' stealing and general mischievousness is beginning to annoy some
people. There have also been some accidents. One of them stole a grenade today
and blew itself up... made a hell of a mess..."

Day Eleven

"A quiet day during which tests continued..."

Colin Lowry and Spiegel were locked away in their respective
laboratories, conducting experiments. Pahn and Christine Pieters reorganised
their cave living quarters. Nash ran a routine check on all the robots,
including Robot Stuvo who complained bitterly about the indignity of being lined
up with 'all those tinplated dustbins'. Baker was 'interviewed' by Tessara
Swift, this consisting of Baker boasting about his supposed military
achievements for two hours before trying unsuccessfully to persuade her to join
him for dinner in his quarters.

Sprake discovered a huge nest hanging from the roof of Pascal's
Cave. It hadn't been there before. Presumably it was a giant wasp's nest,
constructed with incredible speed. Staring up at the massive collection of twigs
and leaves, Sprake decided to leave, as its occupant could return at any moment.

He went down to Nimoy's Cave where Nash was installing a
transporter Clambering awkwardly over some jagged rocks, Sprake cursed the
malfunctioning jetpack that had caused him to travel everywhere on foot.

'What about the jetpacks?' he asked Nash. 'Any theories?'

'You should get more exercise, Commander,' Nash said dryly, as
Sprake puffed from the exertion of the difficult journey.

'That's not a theory, that's a statement of the painfully
obvious.'

'It's true all the same.'

'They told me you were a health freak. If we had reliable
jetpacks I wouldn't need to climb around like a mountain goat.'

'Well, they are a new type. It's probably a design fault.
Gothard's don't have any of the top designers anymore, they can't afford the big
salaries. They're cheap - that's why the Force use them.'

'Right. Let's see the transporter then. That had better work.'

The transporter Nash had installed in a corner of the cave had a
programmable destination. The commander tested it empirically by programming a
return to Banquo Cave. He shivered as the molecules of his body separated. It
was not an experience the Commander relished. Within seconds his molecules
reassembled in Banquo Cave, to the amazement of a imp standing nearby. Sprake
stepped out of the transporter and flipped open his communicator 'It's okay,
Tony, you've still got a job. The device works.'

'Damn. I was hoping your molecules would be stuck in a wall
somewhere and I'd have to take over as Commander.'

'That's not funny, Tony. My sense of humour must have got stuck
in a wall somewhere. See you later.'

Day Twelve

"The living quarters in our base below the surface are becoming familiar, almost
cosy, to us now. Everyone is in good spirits, feeling that the mission is a
success, and this evening we held a party to celebrate."

Music for the party was provided by Tessara Swift, who played
the electrolute, and Colin Lowry, who brought his synthesizer from the 'Pericles.'
Everyone enjoyed themselves apart from Spiegel, who made a brief appearance to
complain about the noise before retiring to his laboratory.

Several of the green imps watched the party, gazing in awe at
the raucous revelry of the crew. Sprake discussed the imps with Sun Pahn who
said that he was now able to distinguish between them from their voices - the
grunts and squeaks varied in tonal modulation - but not from their bodies, as
they seemed to be physically homogeneous. He also believed them to possess
empathic qualities. He had noticed that sometimes an imp would adopt the mood of
a human near to it.

After a few hours all serious discussion was abandoned and Nash
organised a game, the object of which was to find the most ludicrous name
possible for the planet.

The party went on late into the night....

Day Thirteen

"Exploration continues on the lower levels. Colin Lowry told me today
that he is writing a book about his years in the Force. He hopes to make enough
money from it to retire and pursue his own geological interests. He says this
mission will provide an excellent final chapter for the book."

Day Fourteen
The sound of the transporter caused a wasp, hovering over the water, to fly away
through the fountains. The newcomer stepped from the transporter feeling
refreshed and rejuvenated by the experience of matter transference. He glanced
down briefly, as if checking that his molecules had reassembled themselves
satisfactorily, before striding over to inspect the waterfall.

He looked up, up, to the peak, some six metres above his head.
The magnificent cascade of water poured furiously into the black, bottomless
pool in front of him. The jets streamed down with pitiless, relentless force, an
unceasing liquid inferno. He stood at the very precipice of the ledge, so that
the splashing water could pummel his face and soak his suit. It felt cool,
superbly refreshing, and for a few brief moments he felt almost a part of it,
almost an extension of the terrifying underground waterfall, at one with the
primeval forces of Nature itself...

He tore himself away from the torrent, and jetted up through the
caves until the roar of the water could only dimly be heard. As he reached his
destination a booming voice greeted him.

'Ah, my friend. You appear to be dripping wet. You have been
examining the waterfall?'

'I have.'

'You must alter the destination of your transporter. It would be
much more useful, and safer for you, if you could come directly here to my
humble abode.'

His friend nodded. 'I will make the adjustment. That waterfall
is spectacular I've never seen anything like it below ground.'

'Magnificent, is it not? Beautiful, yet terrifying. Beauty can
so often be terrifying.'

'And terror, beautiful?'

'Quite so.' The man in the green space suit sniggered as he
pulled up a small cage, which he quickly opened. A maggot crawled out onto the
stone floor of the cave.

His associate flinched. 'That is horrible.'

'A little creation of mine.'

'You made the maggots?'

'Yes. There were a few natural ones here when I arrived, but
they were grotesquely boring. I have improved them. I have built a machine that
manufactures them. Watch this. Kill!'

At the command the creature moved swiftly forward, its teeth
glinting savagely in the shadowy gloom. Its creator laughed as his visitor
cowered away shouting 'Get that away from me!'

'Stop!' barked the man in the emerald green suit, and the maggot
came to a halt.

In the dank shadows at the rear of the cave, a small imp
crouched, eating a handful of leaves. The maggot's creator raised an imperious
arm and pointed. 'Kill!' he repeated, a look of malicious glee on his brutal
face.

The maggot writhed across the ground, its mouth opened to reveal
a set of razor sharp white teeth. The imp stumbled to its feet, squeaking with
terror as it realised what was happening. It tried to evade the advancing
monstrosity but the maggot suddenly leapt across the cave and buried its teeth
into the imp's stomach. The imp howled in agony as its bowels were ripped open
and the maggot pushed it to the ground. The watching men stared in awed
fascination as the salivating beast consumed its prey. Within seconds the maggot
had stripped the imp of its skin and had progressed to the skeleton.

Tiring of the display, the maggot's creator proceeded to
weightier matters. 'How are our friends from the Force?'

'Hopelessly innocent, and paralysed by their bloated
self-satisfaction. They suspect nothing.'

'Excellent.' We shall continue as planned until we are in
absolute control.'

The man looked affectionately over at the creature he had
created, which was still gnawing at the imp's body, chewing the bloodied bones
with a mindless, brutal intensity.

Some hours later, Sprake sat in his cabin on the 'Pericles',
sending a message back to his superiors.

"Baker has gone missing. He had a furious row with Spiegel down
in a low-level cave, apparently on the subject of Twentieth Century politics -
Spiegel's hobby is history and he has a particular interest in that catastrophic
period. Baker stormed off. As yet he has not returned and does not respond to
his communicator."

Baker's disappearance left Sprake with a difficult dilemma. Was
it some typically adolescent outburst of Baker's? Was he just brooding in a
distant cave? Or had something terrible happened? Should he organise a search
party?

Sprake resolved to wait until the following day to see whether
the errant young officer returned. Spiegel, predictably, was quite unconcerned.
'We're better off without him,' he commented. 'The youth was a total
incompetent.'

Sprake noticed the use of the past tense. 'What do you mean,
was?'

Spiegel's lips curled into a cold, humourless smile. 'Wishful
thinking. I expect he's been killed by someone or something down there.'

'You don't have an ounce of compassion in your body, do you
Spiegel?' the Commander retorted angrily. 'One of our party may be dead and all
you can do is laugh. You're the most callous man I've ever had the misfortune to
meet.'

Sprake was shocked by the intensity of Spiegel's reply. Drawing
himself up to his full towering height the professor, quivering with fury,
pushed his thin, cruel face into Sprake's. His slate grey eyes burned with a
searing hatred as he spat his words out between gritted teeth. 'Am I, Sprake?
Offended your precious moral sense, have I? You soldiers and your moronic
morality. You'll wipe out a planet if your superior orders it, but you profess
an endless compassion for your fellow man. You sicken me.

'I've watched you on this little joy ride, Sprake. Do you want
to know what I think of you? I think you're an obsequious Columbus Force toad, a
worthless, snivelling whiner obsessed with his own career. A wet, whimpering
lackey who isn't fit to command a dog. Of course you're no scientist. You don't
have the brains to understand it and you sneer at those who do. I'm glad that
kid's gone, but I'd much rather it had been you.'

Spiegel ended his tirade by lifting a drinking glass from a
table and heaving it against a wall, where it shattered into a hundred
fragments. Sprake had to step back to avoid a flying shard.

After Spiegel left, Sprake got Robot Chatter to clear up the
mess. Sprake sighed. To see ourselves as others see us. Perhaps there was some
truth in Spiegel's outburst. His career was important to him, there was no
doubting that. But surely that didn't make him an obsequious toad and, what was
it, a whimpering lackey.... he was thinking too much and his head hurt. He
needed some sleep.

As Sprake was about to turn in for the night Lieutenant Nash
called to say that the teleport in Polonius Cave had been found smashed to
pieces.

Day Fifteen
A space ship without a Destinator is not a space ship at all. Without that vital
component the craft cannot take off. Deprived of its Destinator, the craft is no
longer mobile. It is stuck. Trapped.

Its occupants are marooned.

Sprake could hardly believe what he was hearing as Nash provided
him with a garbled version of the facts. The Destinator was gone. Someone or
something must have boarded the ship during the night and taken it. The
forcefield had somehow been deactivated and the console housing it broken into
without the alarm being triggered.

Sprake left his room at a run, heading for the hastily convened
crew meeting on the ship's command deck. Everyone was present, and the mood was
verging on panic. 'Any sign of Zinc?' he asked Nash.

'No. Nothing.'

'This is your fault, Sprake,' sneered Spiegel. 'With only a
skeleton crew on the ship, anyone could get aboard!'

'You were the person most keen to leave the ship and set up base
underground, Spiegel. How could we man the ship when most people wanted to live
in the caves?'

'You should have refused to let them move. I need to be down
there. This pair of nurses don't.' He waved a hand dismissively at Christine
Pieters and Sun Pahn.

'We've got as much right to be down there as you,' said
Christine sharply.

'Who could have taken the Destinator?' asked Sun Pahn. 'We're
trapped here now. There was a tremor in his voice, and his hands were shaking.

'A blue imp?' suggested Tessara Swift.

'No,' Sprake decided. 'Removing the Destinator without
activating the alarm requires a high level of skill with electronics. The imps
couldn't be responsible.'

'Never mind who did it!' shouted Sun Pahn, his body shaking with
emotion. 'The point is we're trapped on this horrible planet!'

Everyone began to talk at once. The problem with small groups
like this, thought Sprake, was that one person's panic could spread like
wildfire to the others. The volatile Sun Pahn was shouting and screaming about
their predicament, and his mood was contagiously spreading.

Sprake shouted to make himself heard above the din. 'Listen to
me! I said listen!' The noise abated slightly. 'Right, so we've lost the
Destinator, a key part of the guidance system. But there's no point in standing
here shouting at each other I'll send an urgent message to the Force requesting
that a replacement be dispatched immediately. I suggest, rather than sit
twiddling our thumbs waiting for it to arrive, we set out to look for the one
that's been stolen. And for Baker'

There was a rumble of assent. Sprake organised a search party
and they teleported down to Banquo Cave to begin the search.

After a few hours fruitlessly combing the caves they had
previously explored, they reached the rune-embossed portal out to the west which
they had been unable to move. To their surprise they discovered that it had been
mysteriously opened, revealing a steep slope disappearing down into cloying
pitch darkness.

Lowry stepped into the opening and held out his Geiger counter,
which produced a rapid clicking sound. 'The radiation level down there is
dangerously high,' he remarked.

'We should return to the ship,' offered Spiegel. 'Seal ourselves
in and request assistance from the Force. We have no idea what we're dealing
with.'

'I don't know...' said Sprake hesitantly.

'That would be contrary to the Force Directives Manual,' Nash
observed. 'Under Sub-Section 42B it is our duty to search for any missing crew
member.'

Nash let the insult go. He volunteered to enter the dank chasm
that had opened up before them.

'Dashed good show, old bean,' said Robot Toff. 'I'd go m'self if
it weren't for this gammy leg. You're a gentleman, sir.'

'Alright Tony,' said Sprake. 'But put Toff into defensive mode
and take him with you. Be careful.'

'Yes. I'd be devastated if anything happened to you,' said Spiegel, his voice
dripping with sarcasm.

Arming himself with a heavy duty, combat situation icer, Nash
stepped forward into the tunnel, accompanied by the robot. He disappeared into
the pitch blackness before them and for a few seconds they heard his footsteps
echoing on the hard rock floor.

When he later went through the sequence of events in his mind,
Sprake wasn't sure what happened first. But the brief gurgle of excruciating
pain from the tunnel was followed instantly by the appearance of the most
terrifying creatures Sprake had ever seen.

Two of them were imps. But imps unlike the ones the crew had
encountered before. Their arms had been torn off and replaced by elaborate metal
projections which served as weapons... in their claw-like hands they carried
blasters of unfamiliar design... their hair was yellow like other imps, but they
were considerably larger... there were ghastly, ragged scars on their heads
surrounded by clotted blood...

But it was their faces that were most hideous. They were
bursting with explosive hate, their features contorted into frenzies of
uncontrollable rage...

They were the faces of the damned.

But even more nightmarish was the creature hovering in the air
above them. A robot taller than any man, its silver body dovetailed into a long
metal spike that was either a balancing device or a weapon. Its torso was a
battered, bloodstained collection of rusting sheets of metal. A barrel-like
projection extended from its chest. Its head was triangular with a twisted
gargoyle-like face and black eye slits.

The crew froze as the terrible trinity emerged from the tunnel.
The robot spoke in a harsh, grating voice.

'We meet at last. Face to face, as it were. I am your nemesis. I
demand vengeance!'

'Who... are you?'

'I am the Grim Reaper, my friend. I am Napoleon, I am Hitler, I
am Ghengis Khan, I am God. For many long years I have waited. Now I will have my
revenge. At last... at last!' The voice narrowed into a hiss, then turned into a
manic insane cackle.

Sprake turned to the others. There was sheer naked terror in their eyes. 'Run!'
he screamed.

No-one needed to be told twice. Those that retained jetpacks
jetted away, the others ran. The imps went for them. Lowry turned to aim his
icer. The beams had no effect. He stumbled and one of the imps seized him, then
began to tear at his throat with its metal hands... the others knew there was
nothing they could do for him. His screams echoed around the cave walls like the
wailings of a condemned soul.

They ran towards their base at a furious pace. The caves rang
with the sound of screams and the murderous roaring of the imps. Sprake felt his
heart pounding, a stitch developing in his ribs but he pushed himself on... the
imps were giving chase. The crew knew there was no time to operate the
transporters so they raced past them.

Robot Toff pounded past Sprake. It possessed, as did all its
class of automaton, the ability to run faster than any man. Toff must have
eluded the killers, thought Sprake. If only Nash had escaped and the robot been
destroyed.

An imp caught Christine Pieters and her screams made Sprake's
blood run cold. He arrived at the base with the others hard on his heels.
Tessara Swift, who had remained in the base, stood taking photos of the deranged
imps.

The survivors rushed in. 'Seal the airlocks!' someone shouted.
Sprake leapt for the console and hit the switch. The doors slid shut.

They stood wheezing with the effort, gulping air into their
lungs, trying to understand the events that had engulfed them. The sound of the
imps had died away now, leaving the silence they were used to outside the base.
But now the silence was different. Now it was doomladen, forbidding, terrifying.
The enormity of what had happened had yet to sink in. In a matter of minutes
their friends, Nash, Lowry, Christine Pieters, had been lost. Why, Sprake's mind
screamed. Who was killing them and why?

Sun Pahn was weeping. He had collapsed into a chair with his
head buried in his hands, and was sobbing uncontrollably. He looked at up at
Sprake, his eyes brimming with tears. 'Where's Christine? Christine!'

Sprake laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, then moved away.
There would be time for grief later Right now Christine was lying in a bloody
mess on a cave floor, ripped apart by an animal, and if they didn't keep their
heads they would meet the same fate.

The Commander approached Spiegel, who was slumped across a
computer keyboard. 'Are all airlocks sealed, Spiegel?'

The Professor ignored the question. 'You're an imbecile, Sprake,' he sneered,
his thin, bearded face twisted with fury. 'A careerist yes-man. Unimaginative,
cowardly, weak. You're so concerned with your stinking career and what your
superiors might say that you've endangered our lives. You should have
slaughtered every imp we saw

'The normal imps were no problem. The ones we've just
encountered are different... mutated by the radioactivity perhaps... and you saw
those scars on their heads...'

'We should have exterminated all of them! You're a nobody,
Sprake, a worthless cretin posing as a commander. You can no longer rely on my
support on this so-called mission. You've blundered terribly. If I had my way
we'd put you up against the nearest wall and gun you down. Then we'd search out
every last imp and slaughter them until these caves ran with their blood!'

'You listen to me, Spiegel

'Quiet, both of you!' Tessara Swift shouted suddenly. 'Look at
the computer!'

The two men broke off their argument and turned to the computer
next to them. On the screen letters were slowly appearing. 'what the...'
murmured Sprake. They all gathered around, even Sun Pahn, to watch in amazement
as words began to form....

After a minute, the words ended. The message that had unfolded
before them read: 'Greetings, my friends. Did you think you could escape me by
retreating to your base? You cannot. There is no sanctuary, my friends. I will
have my revenge. Revenge is a noble emotion. Triax will not be denied. I repeat
- there is no sanctuary.'

'This must be from that robot thing that spoke to us at the Rune
Cavern,' said Sun Pahn.

'That was only a robot, operated by its programmer,' said Sprake
thoughtfully. 'I think the programmer is the mind behind all this. What's that
name - Triax. Does it mean anything to anybody?'

The others shook their heads. 'Right. Sun, can you run it
through the other computer's memory bank to see if we've got any trace?'

Tearing his mind away from his dead fiancée, Pahn moved to the other machine and
rapidly input his password.

For a few seconds his hands ran over the console with the
familiar practised ease of a master pianist at his keyboard, then he turned
eagerly to the others. 'Commander, there's a record here.'

They gathered around the computer to read the screen. 'Triax:
name adopted by criminal of late twenty first century. True name unknown.
Responsible for barbaric genetic experiments. Imprisoned victims in order to
tamper with their brains and bodies in an attempt to create a race of ruthless
killers. Trials recorded on Justice Directorate tapes ZZ5732. His sentence was
exile into Space, alone in a Prisoner class vessel with pre-set coordinates.'

'Now we know who we're dealing with,' said Sprake.

Exile into Space was never a common sentence for criminals. The
everyday lawbreakers - robbers, thieves, smugglers, killers - were imprisoned in
huge establishments on specially-constructed islands in the middle of oceans.
For the most heinous and barbaric, however, this was not considered punishment
enough. As a series of debates had failed to win the restoration of the death
penalty, the other option, for many years, had been exile.

Criminals of this type were sent into the dark night of Space in
small, primitive capsules, with pre-set coordinates, powered by booster rockets.
The course would be straight ahead, aimed at a distant galaxy, with no
possibility of turning back. They would be provided with food and power to last
them one year, but it was estimated that no criminal would live that long. The
finite electricity supply would be the first thing to go, leaving the occupant
in constant darkness. Top criminal psychologists advised that this sensory
deprivation would drive the prisoner insane, and that most would subsequently
take their own lives. It was the widely-held belief that this was an inhuman
punishment which had eventually caused the exile system to be abandoned.

Death had not come to the man who called himself Triax. Somehow
he had managed to land on the planet, where it seemed that he had established a
base, developed robots and experimented on the imps. The deranged imps who
attacked the crew, with their terrible scarred heads, had to be the product of
Triax's bizarre experiments. Clearly, he was not a man to be trifled with.

'Initially. Then when he's slaughtered us he'll use our ship to
return to Earth, said Spiegel.

'How do you know that?'

'It seems probable,' replied Spiegel with a leer.

Sprake wondered briefly what the cryptic rejoinder meant, but
dismissed it as irrelevant. He had never understood Spiegel, why should he start
now?

'What are we going to do, Commander?' asked Sun Pahn, his voice
trembling. He was a broken man.

'We'll try and contact this lunatic,' said Sprake forcefully,
settling himself at a computer keyboard. 'I'd like to meet him face to face.'

The others formed a group around him as he input a message.
'Hello Triax. Commander David Sprake of the Columbus Force ship 'Pericles' here.
How about a meeting to discuss things? That's if you dare to show your face. So
far we've only encountered the creatures you employ to do your dirty work for
you.

Sprake entered the message and sat back awaiting the reply.
Within seconds words began to appear on the screen. 'Greetings, Commander Sprake.
Of course I know who you and your friends are, I have been monitoring you ever
since your arrival on this charming planet of mine. Very entertaining it has
been, as well. I have no objection to meeting you. On the contrary, I will find
it positively stimulating. I receive so few visitors. Any social call is
welcome, however brief. And believe me, Commander. Yours will be brief. But
Triax is generous. You can name the time and the place.'

Sprake's hands moved speedily across the keyboard, fashioning
his reply. 'If you know so much about us you'll know which cave we call Lear
Cave. I'll see you there in six hours. Don't be late.'

The communication ended, Sprake told his colleagues that he and
Sun Pahn would go to meet the madman. The object would be to try some psychology
on him, attempt to get him talking about his childhood and what caused him to
grow into the maniac that he had become. If they could take him prisoner, they
would bring him back. If not they would try to kill him.

They had six hours to wait. The other crew members, exhausted
from the day's events, attempted to sleep. Sprake and Pahn, standing guard,
discussed in detail what they would say to Triax if they were given the
opportunity to speak. The plan agreed upon, they stood in brooding silence.
Sprake felt his eyelids, heavy with exhaustion, begin to close....

Day Sixteen
"Stupidly I fell asleep... I feel better for the rest though. Pahn and I are
about to leave the base for our meeting with the mad criminal Triax. If we fail
in our mission we will be killed and this will be my last ever report..."

Sprake turned to face the others. Sun Pahn was armed with
grenades and several icers. Spiegel looked drawn and haggard, but still as
hostile as even Tessara Swift looked terrified. Her hair was bedraggled and her
eyes were rimmed with tears. The robots, however, were the same as ever. 'Dashed
good luck, old boy,' said Toff. 'The feller's a blackguard. He deserves a dam'
good thrashing.'

'Right. Open the airlocks, Spiegel.'

'Good luck,' whispered Tessara Swift, forcing a smile.

'We'll need it. Ready, Sun?'

The Chinaman nodded grimly. The airlocks slid open and they made
their way cautiously into the tunnel beyond. The airlocks slid shut. Holding
their icers in front of them, they proceeded slowly. All was quiet. There was no
sound and no sign of life, not even of normal imps. Their footsteps echoed
loudly. The crew no longer had any operable jetpacks so they had to travel on
foot all the way.

Arriving at Lear Cave, they found it empty. 'Come on out, Triax!'
shouted Sun Pahn. We're waiting for you! There's no need to be shy, you gutless
murderer!'

'Shut up,' said Sprake tersely. He looked at his companion. He
had to bring Pahn because he was a psychologist and might be able to win over
the criminal's unbalanced mind. But it was clear that Pahn was himself a long
way from calm balance. Always temperamental, Christine's death had driven him to
the very brink of hysteria.

Suddenly a panel in the cave wall pulled back and the hideous
robot they had seen before emerged. It hovered above them, its narrow eye slits
terrifyingly blank and the sheer metal spike it possessed hanging perilously
close to their heads.

The two men took an involuntary step back. Sprake could feel his
heart beating fit to burst. He hollered at the robot. 'I thought we were going
to meet you, Triax, not this heap of scrapyard metal! We don't want to talk to
your lackeys!'

'Are you frightened to show yourself, Triax?' shouted Sun Pahn.

The robot spoke with the same soft, faintly sinister, English
voice as before. 'How loudly you shout in a feeble attempt to conceal your
fear.'

An imp emerged from the panel. It was short and squat with
strong, muscular arms. One hand had been replaced by a long steel knife. On its
head it bore the scars that marked it as a victim of Triax's appalling
experiments and its mouth slavered with globules of saliva pouring down its
body. Its dark eyes seethed with a monstrous rage.

The robot spoke. The voice was now angry. 'Do you dare to bandy
words with me?'

Suddenly the robot attacked Sun Pahn and the imp came for Sprake.
It grabbed the Commander round the neck and they fell to the ground, grappling.
Sprake struggled to free his arm so that he could fire his icer, but their
bodies were pressed together, and all he could see was the imp's twisted,
snarling face. It was trying to bite him. Sprake pulled his head back, trying to
keep out of the creature's reach, but the imp was stronger than him. Its
cavernous mouth opened and its sharp, pointed teeth closed in on Sprake's
throat....

'Leave him alone.' The voice provoked an immediate reaction in
the imp. It pulled back, climbed off Sprake and stood up. 'Go back,' ordered the
voice. The imp walked away.

Sprake staggered to his feet and looked at the tall man who had
appeared before him. He wore an emerald green space suit, which had a visor over
its face, so that its occupant could not be seen. The voice was the same as the
robot's, so Sprake took this to be Triax, the madman trying to kill them all. He
was holding an icer.

Sprake glanced over at Pahn. He was dead. His eyes stared
lifelessly and there was a trickle of blood dripping from his mouth. The robot
hovered above the bloodied corpse.

Sprake looked at Triax with hatred. 'You animal,' he said
savagely.

Triax laughed chillingly. 'I consider that a compliment,
Commander. Now I think it's time you paid a visit to my home.' He gestured with
his icer to the panel in the cave wall.

Sprake moved forward into the recess. Triax followed him. A
primitive transporter stood in the shadows and the two men stepped into it.
Triax hit a switch and their molecules began to separate...

Within seconds they had reached their destination, appearing in a transporter
located in a dank cavern. The light was so bad that Sprake had to concentrate to
see clearly. He surmised that they were now much deeper into the cave system.
Triax gestured with his icer.

Sprake stepped into the hidden cave. It was certainly
impressive. Much larger than any the crew had seen on the planet, its walls were
lined with wooden tables on which were stacked innumerable items of scientific
equipment - microscopes, petri dishes, test tubes and bottles containing liquids
of all colours. The cave walls and the tables were stained with liquids
including, Sprake noticed with a shiver, blood.

The cave floor was littered with all manner of furniture. As
well as tables and chairs there were knives, crudely manufactured guns, icers,
plates and towering consoles of bloodstained machinery the purpose of which
Sprake could only guess at. The dominant decoration, however, was a collection
of mounted imp heads which adorned the walls. These were horrific enough to
cause the Commander to take a sharp intake of breath.

'Welcome to the court of King Triax,' said his captor. Sprake
turned to see the killer removing his spacesuit helmet. Triax was revealed as a
man perhaps two metres in height. His face was fat with a thick black beard. His
dark curly hair was uncombed. A deep brown scar disfigured one cheek. His
unblinking bloodshot eyes had the crazed stare of the fanatic.

'I've tried to make it cosy,' he said, glancing around the cave.
'It's rather nice, don't you think? Now then, would you care for coffee? Or
something stronger? By the way, I'll have your icer.'

Sprake reluctantly handed his weapon over. Unknown to Triax,
however, he had a small icer concealed in his waistband. If Sprake could get him
talking maybe he could find a moment to pull it out and fire...

'I don't want any of your drinks, Triax, or whatever your name
is. I just want to know why. Why have you killed my crew members?'

Triax's moment of affability vanished as suddenly as it had
appeared. 'Revenge, Commander. That's why, if you must have an explanation.
Revenge is my lust, my need, my food and drink. For fifty years I have waited
here, preparing for this moment, and now I WILL EXACT MY REVENGE!'

'But why us? What have we done to you?'

'Your race condemned me to an existence in Space, trapped in a
Prisoner class Vessel. That was a transgression, and you will all pay the price
for your error!'

'But you were a criminal...'

'A criminal?!' Triax roared. 'I am a scientist! My experiments are a way
forward, they show that we can beat Nature, that we need not be satisfied with
the bodies that we have been given, we can adjust them, improve them!'

'But the people you captured and tortured...'

'You cannot make an omelette without breaking legs, Commander.'
Triax cackled at his sick joke. 'I needed raw material for my experiments. They
would not come willingly, so I had to take them by force. It is unimportant,
they were of no consequence. I cannot let a few whimpering people stand blocking
the march of science. No-one stops Triax!'

'How did you get down to this planet?' Sprake asked, genuinely
fascinated by the maniac's story.

'Ah, a stroke of luck. My ship, my prison, collided with a small
meteor and was knocked off course. It crash-landed on this planet, the winds
preventing it from burning up as it descended. Summoning all my strength, I
crawled from the wreckage into the caves. Oh, the pain of it haunts me still. I
rescued what equipment I could from the crippled ship and set up my base down
here. It was not long before I was using my expertise to build robots and to
conduct experiments on the inhabitants, the imps and wasps and birds.'

'Why?'

'My work is my life! As long as I live it lives. I soon found
that I was able to make changes in the character of these creatures by adjusting
their brains.'

'What about the mining civilisation? Was that still here when
you arrived?'

'No. You must have noticed the high level of radiation in the
lower caves. I think that must have wiped them out. If they weren't capable of
space flight they couldn't leave, and there was some sort of nuclear explosion
the immediate radiation level would have killed them all.'

'Did you say you've been here fifty years? That's not possible.
You only look about forty, maybe forty five years old.'

Triax smiled narrowly, revealing a set of brown and yellow
decaying teeth. 'I am eighty seven. It's a fortunate side effect of the type of
radiation here. A small amount permeating through the skin over a long period of
time drastically reduces the ageing process.' His voice took on a harsh, bitter
tone. 'Yes, for fifty years I have been trapped here, Commander Sprake. Fifty
years lurking in these caves, brooding on my wrongs. Fifty years to plan my
terrible revenge. And believe me, Commander, it will be terrible. I am returning
to the Earth. When I arrive they will learn to whimper with fear when they hear
the name Triax. I will be their king, their emperor, their God!'

'And you intend to use our ship?'

'Very perceptive, Commander. I do indeed. But first I must rid
myself of yourself, and your remaining crew members.'

'You're going to kill the rest of us? And we were getting on so
well.'

'Triax ignored the sarcasm. 'Not all of you, Commander. You can
join us now!' A door slid open and Spiegel walked into the lab.

The German took a step forward, a smile of pure malice on his
face. 'It is true,' he said.

'Spiegel! What... have you been helping this lunatic?'

'I have indeed.'

Sprake leapt at the professor and clasped his hands around his
throat. Spiegel fell to his knees, choking as he tried to tear Sprake's hands
away before they squeezed the life out of him. 'You filth!' Sprake shouted.
'You've helped to kill my crew!'

'Simple,' answered Spiegel, quickly recovering his composure.
'Genetic engineering is an interest of mine. I started off tampering with animal
foetuses... gradually I became more and more fascinated by the work, and came to
realise that what I really wanted to do was experiment on human beings.'

Spiegel pulled up a chair and slumped into it, rubbing his weary eyes. 'Ah, it
is a relief to stop performing.'

'You could have been an actor on the stage, Spiegel!' remarked
Triax with a throaty chuckle.

'But why are you working with him?' demanded Sprake.

'Let's call it instinct, Sprake. An instinct that told me we
would make a formidable team.'

'We great scientists have such instincts,' boomed Triax from a
stool which he had settled onto. 'They set us apart from ordinary mortals, the
faceless mass of human mediocrity. We are separated by our genius!'

'Quite right, Triax,' agreed Spiegel. Sprake noted an undertone
in Spiegel's voice. these two had joined forces but their relationship did not
seem a particularly easy one. While Spiegel was amoral, brutal, Triax was
terrifyingly insane. It seemed to Sprake that Spiegel was repressing his own
egotistical nature when in Triax's company, allowing the exile to be, or seem to
be, in charge.

'Our plan,' Spiegel elaborated, 'was to eliminate the 'Pericles'
crew. That has now almost been achieved. Next we will return to Earth where we
will build an army of warriors-'

'And I shall be their Emperor!' said Triax exultantly.

'Indeed you will,' said Spiegel. Sprake thought that Spiegel
intended there to be a different outcome. Probably he would kill Triax and
become leader himself. For the time being he was humouring Triax's monstrous
conceits. 'And I will be your deputy.'

'No.'

For a second there was silence. Spiegel, looking unsure of
himself for the first time, turned to look at Triax. 'No, Lord Triax?'

'No,' confirmed Triax, moving his icer to a point directly in
front of his collaborator 'I don't trust you. You will turn against me. You must
die.'

'Die? Me?' Sprake had never seen Spiegel look frightened before.
But now he was terrified, a pitiful spectacle as he fell to his knees, pleading
for mercy. 'But we are a team... we work together... please Triax... not me...'

There was only contempt in Triax's eyes as he stared down at the
man cowering
before him.

'You are of no value,' intoned Triax, his deep grey eyes
glistening with fanaticism and the scar on his cheek a vivid, glowing red. 'Did
you think Triax would adhere to a bargain made with a worm like you? Adios, my
friend.' The icer hung over Spiegel's twisted face...

At that moment Sprake, who had been working his hands around
slowly to the back of his waist, pulled his icer and fired. The shot caught
Triax in the arm and he roared with pain. 'Spiegel! Run!' Sprake shouted. As
Triax staggered back, holding his wounded arm, Spiegel rose from the ground, and
the pair of them fled.

Sprake had no idea what to do when he reached the base. Could
they keep Triax and his creatures out? That would be their only hope. There was
no chance of locating Triax in the caves. He had been there half a century and
knew them like the back of his hand. He probably had other secret panels and
concealed rooms all over the place.

As Sprake ran puffing into the tunnel leading up to the
airlocks, he flipped out his
communicator. His stomach had a stitch and his legs were wracked with pain but
he forced his body on, as he could hear the grunts of the imps and the exhorting
commands of Triax as his pursuers thundered through the cave behind him. 'It's
me! For God's sake open the airlocks! But be ready to close them as soon as we
re
in!'

As they approached Sprake saw the airlocks begin to rise and the
comforting light from the base flooding out. If he could just keep going for a
few more seconds...

They raced into the enveloping yellow light of the base and came
to a halt. Tessara was the only human left there. She and the robots were
huddled in a corner. Tessara looked at Sprake, terror in her eyes. From the open
airlock Sprake heard 'Triax bellow 'In there! Quickly, you morons!'

Sprake, barely able to speak because his lungs were in such
pain, gasped, 'Spiegel, don't just stand there, man! Close the doors!'

Spiegel's hand hit the console and the airlocks slid shut, with
the thumping footsteps of their pursuers mere yards away.

Sprake sank into a chair. What now?

'Pahn?' Tessara asked. Sprake shook his head.

Pulling out his icer, Sprake pointed it towards Spiegel, who had
fallen into a chair. The traitor had recovered his icy composure and his face
wore its customary sneer
'Put up the defences, Spiegel. Then you've got some explaining to do.'

'Hilarious,' returned Sprake. 'That should keep Triax and his
cronies out for the time being.'

Oddly, the clamour outside had died away. No sound could be
heard. Removing his helmet, taking care to keep his icer trained on Spiegel, the
Commander rubbed his weary eyes. 'What's he up to now?' he pondered aloud.

'I should think he's returned to his lab to tend to his wound,'
answered Spiegel. 'Whatever he says about the ageing process slowing down here,
Triax doesn't have much energy. Our little adventure will have exhausted him. I
imagine he'll rest for a time, planning his strategy for overpowering us. After
all, we're not going anywhere.'

Spiegel shrugged. 'I have no excuse, Commander. I am, as you
know, a scientist. I am totally dedicated to the advance of science. I don't
subscribe to the same morality as other men. An arbitrary system of moral values
is not a necessary part of the scientist's equipment.

'However I did make a mistake in siding with Triax, I accept
that. I now realise that he is a mass murderer whose activities can only damage
the development of science.'

'You've changed your tune. If he hadn't turned on you you'd
still be behind him all the way.'

'No. I knew that he had to be stopped, and that my arrangement
with him had to be terminated. I planned to turn him over to the authorities at
the earliest opportunity.'

Sprake eyed his adversary suspiciously. Could he believe him?
'How did you find out about Triax anyway?'

Spiegel leaned back in his chair and yawned.

'Genetic engineering is a fascination of mine. On Earth I
studied it and worked on it obsessively. In the course of my research I studied
the careers of all previous experimentalists in the field. Triax was by far the
most fascinating. I read of his exile and one day, for no particular reason, I
decided to calculate the course his capsule would have taken. While doing so I
noticed that the capsule would have been on a collision course with a meteor.
The two must have collided and the capsule would have been deflected from its
original trajectory.

'There were a number of planets in the vicinity of the incident,
this one being the
nearest. As I sat in my laboratory, poring over the charts, a bizarre notion
entered
my head. Suppose Triax's craft had crashed onto a planet. He might have
survived,
and might have been able to continue his experiments with whatever life forms
were on the planet.'

'Not very likely,' interjected Sprake, his voice laced with
contempt.

'Perhaps not. After all, even if this had occurred, I thought
Triax would probably have died long ago - I knew nothing of the radiation here.
This was the largest planet in the quadrant,' continued Spiegel, 'So I thought
it a strong possibility that the capsule crashed here. As luck would have it, I
heard that the Columbus Force was planning an expedition to the very same
planet. I made immediate plans to join the crew.

Back on Earth I have some very powerful computers, Commander.
More powerful than any legally owned by private individuals. Using these I was
able to intercept the messages from the dwarfie that came here, before they got
back to the Columbus Force. The dwarfie had registered a large amount of
electrical activity on the planet. When I saw that I was enthralled. It might
mean that Triax was alive.

I felt I had to go there to see for myself. The chance to work
with the estimable Triax - the most intelligent scientist in my chosen field -
was an opportunity I was unable to resist. Besides, with that investigation into
my work, my experiments at home had been stopped and I had plenty of free time.
I had nothing to lose.'

'Go on.'

'I didn't want anyone else reaching my conclusions about Triax's
presence on the planet, so I tampered with the messages coming back from the
dwarfie, removing all mention of electrical activity before the messages were
heard by Force officials.

'When, as you know, I managed to persuade the Force bureaucrats
that I was the ideal Chief Scientist for the mission. I secured my berth on the
'Pericles' and bided my time.

'When we arrived, I was almost as ignorant of the situation here
as yourself. At first, seeing the horrible wasteland of the surface, I was
greatly disappointed. What could there be of interest to me on such a planet?

'But then we discovered the cave system. After a few days I began to venture off
alone, down into the caves. Imagine my delight when I met...'

'Lord Triax.'

'As he usually calls himself Yes. He raised his weapon to kill
me, but then I said 'Are you Triax?' and we began to talk. He has an enormous
ego, which was boosted by my talk of studying his work. 'All true scientists
know of me!' he said. The man is consumed by egotism, awash with self-love.

'I was overjoyed to find him alive, of course,' added Spiegel.
'We adjourned to his base and became engrossed in discussion, exchanging our
stories. We discovered a mutual love of genetic experiment. He had worked on the
creatures here and had even managed to make one or two robots, but he could
progress no further. Until we arrived.

'I began to help him. I stole some robots-'

'So that's where they went.'

'to assist. I took him tools and equipment. But, all the same, I
didn't trust him. I suspected that, if we did get back to Earth, he would resent
having to share his glory with anyone. He might well turn on me. As a precaution
I removed one of the ship's engines and took it to my lab.'

'The one damaged in the landing?'

'That's what I told you. It wasn't actually damaged. I removed
it in case Triax turned against me. He lacks the knowledge to replace it, and,
without it, the ship can't leave. He would need me to refit it. Or so I thought.
But he's gone over the edge. He doesn't seem to care anymore.

'How did you get down to his lab without the rest of us
noticing?' queried Sprake.

'I installed a transporter in my lab, behind a locked panel.
Nobody knew it was there. It took me down to Triax's lab, and one of those
rather primitive transporters Triax has managed to lash up there brought me
back.'

'God, what a mess,' said Sprake, exasperated. 'So you and Triax,
the dynamic duo, intended to return to Earth where he would reap revenge for his
supposed ill treatment and you would help with his genetic engineering
experiments.'

'That's right. And anyone who objected to Triax becoming ruler
of the planet would be thrown to the maggots. Triax is responsible for them as
well. He has a
machine that manufactures them.'

There was no time for any more conversation. The madman was
back. The door began to give way under a furious battering from the imps.
Triax's enraged voice could be heard exhorting them to push harder 'Well, it
looks as if rest time is over' said Sprake. 'I don't trust you, Spiegel, but
we're going to have to work together to beat him. Is that transporter in your
lab still usable?'

'Yes.'

'Then go through the rear door, run to your transporter and
teleport down to Triax's lab. Do as much damage as you can down there. Kill as
many imps and maggots as possible. Try and destroy the maggot machine. I'll try
and keep him busy up here.'

Spiegel moved from his seat, pulled on his helmet and left the
cave by the manual rear door.

'What do you want me to do, Commander?' asked Tessara.

Sprake attempted a comforting smile. 'Just try and stay alive.'

Spiegel moved quickly through the caves to his lab. He inserted
the key in the
lock, and a panel slid back to reveal the concealed transporter Spiegel stepped
inside. As an afterthought he closed the panel, locked it with the key then
pushed the key into a pocket of his spacesuit.

Seconds later he appeared in a cave many kilometres further
below the planet's surface, and moved forward carefully. This was Triax's domain
and you never knew what danger might lurk around every corner.

Spiegel moved through Triax's lab without encountering any
assailant - the imps and robots were all with their beloved leader. Racing
through the rooms, he
hurriedly cannibalised an icer so that it would explode, thus destroying much of
Triax's equipment. The eerie sight of severed imp heads mounted along the walls
made even Spiegel's skin crawl with revulsion. Of the stolen Destinator, without
which the 'Pericles' could not leave the planet, Spiegel could find no trace.
Triax must have hidden it elsewhere - if they survived, they could search for it
later.

In a room near the waterfall, an elaborate machine had been
developed by Triax for the purpose of manufacturing maggots. Even as Spiegel
desperately pushed against the unyielding stone door, the process was
continuing. Powered by a generator, the machine produced maggots which were
carried through a plastic tube into the transporter which carried them west to
the Maggot Cave. Spiegel had found the door locked and was unable to force his
way in. He realised that his only
hope was to destroy this appalling device with the grenade.

Spiegel hurled the bomb at the door and threw himself to the
ground as the shuddering explosion rocked the caves...

At the same moment, Sprake was realising that the doors of the
base would not withstand the battering it was taking for much longer. The imps,
pushed on by Triax, who could be heard screaming at them hysterically, had
dented the door and it was only a matter of time before they broke in.

'Do we stand and fight?' demanded Tessara Swift.

'Why not, m'dear,' said Robot Toff. 'Queensbury Rules, of
course. No gouging or poking, after all we are gentlemen.'

Sprake rose and opened the manual door on the other side of the
cave. It revealed the biggest imp they had yet seen, a huge brown monster
standing some three metres in height, which filled the doorway with its
terrifying bulk.

'Triax has realised there's a back door to this place,' muttered
Sprake.

Tessara screamed. Sprake fired his icer, time and time again,
but it had no effect. The creature advanced into the room. At that moment the
airlock gave away and two other imps pushed their way in, followed by Triax.
'Now my friends,' said Triax between deep gulps of air, his voice triumphant,
cruel, brutally malevolent. 'I will not be cheated of my revenge. I WILL NOT!'

Down in the caves, the smoke cleared to reveal the door standing
intact. Spiegel cursed and realised that the only action he could take now was
to wipe out the worms located in the Maggot Cave to the West. He began to make
his way to it.

Eventually Spiegel got there without incident. A huge cavern,
its floor a deep lake, a featureless expanse of water broken only by a jutting
rock forming a small island. It was filled with maggots which swam in the lake
or piled up on top of each other on the rock in a fetid heap of vile disgust.
Some attempted to climb out to attack Spiegel, straining their putrid bodies and
grimacing with their ravenous teeth.

Spiegel had brought a flame throwing device from the lab. He
lifted it and fired it into the mass of bodies. 'Take this, my beauties,' he
shouted as the flames caught them and turned the maggots instantaneously into a
terrifying inferno of fire. As their bodies were engulfed the creatures squealed
with agony, feeling their skins burn and shrivel as the roaring yellow flames
caught them. But even as some maggots died in the blazing conflagration, others
were teleported in.

Leaving the maggots ablaze, Spiegel ran from the room towards the transporter
that would take him back to the safety of his laboratory. He stumbled over a
rock and fell to the ground. After a few seconds, shaking his groggy head,
Spiegel prepared to climb to his feet.

As his eyes rose from the ground, he saw two large, brown, hairy
feet in his path. Spiegel looked up to find an angry imp looming over him. 'Get
away from me, you hairy oaf!' he shouted. 'I am Professor Spiegel, Lord Triax's
friend!'

But Triax had clearly informed his henchmen of the changed
relationship. The imp made for Spiegel with a murderous look in its eyes, and
Spiegel turned on his heel and ran for his life. He thundered through the
caverns with the imp in close pursuit. they raced through a cave full of
sleeping birds, who flapped their wings with fright and excitement as the noise
woke them. Approaching Triax's transporter Spiegel reached for his key, but it
wasn't there - he must have dropped it!

His only terrified hope was to outrun the creature. The distance
between them was increasing; Spiegel could hear the imp grunting with the effort
of running at full speed. He began to slow down.

Suddenly he found himself spinning through the air He had
tripped over a stray vine. He tumbled to the ground with a painful thud.
Desperately he tried to get to his feet but his right leg was twisted and be
couldn't stand on it. Spiegel hobbled agonisingly across the cave, but as he did
so the imp pounded in after him. It bore down on him, raising an icer.

The blast caught Spiegel in the head. He screamed his last
protest, a look of excruciating pain on his face, as his burning eyes turned to
jelly.

Up in the base, Sprake had activated the microphone in his belt
to send his final, desperate message to his superiors. 'Help us, for God's sake,
help us!'

'I will not be cheated of my revenge!' Triax was bellowing. 'I
will have my revenge!'

He raised an icer and fired at Tessara Swift, who was thrown by
the force of the blast across a table. Then, slowly, he brought the icer around
to face Sprake.

They were both out of breath. Triax's brow was beaded with
sweat. His eyes had taken on a blank glazed look that was scarcely human. For a
few seconds neither man spoke. Toff and the other robots had herded themselves
into a corner The deranged imps were standing awaiting their leader's command.

'Go ahead, Triax,' spat Sprake. 'Fire.'

Triax's mood had swung, yet again. Now he seemed calm and serene, and he chose
his words slowly and thoughtfully.

'No, I do not intend to kill you, Commander I want to involve
you in my experiments. You will be my raw materials. And the next recipient
lucky enough to participate in Triax's journey to knowledge is to be you,
Commander Sprake. I've got a special one lined up for you. How would you like
your brain put inside an imp's head?'

'What?!'

Triax's eyes were aglow with the bright enthusiasm of the
fanatical. 'Yes! The first joining of a human with an imp, of the intelligent
with the savage!'

Triax threw back his head and laughed. 'Mad, am I? No, I think
not, Commander, I occupy the grey area between madness and sanity. And it is
there that most geniuses are to be found. Now then. Over to the table,
Commander. Prepare to say goodbye to your body!'

Sprake had often thought about death. Cold, unrelenting death.
How would it feel? Slowly, interminably, the icer swung to face him. 'Now,
Commander,' said Triax. 'We must return to the experiment I was about to begin
before I was so rudely interrupted.'

Sprake knew he had a choice. He could go along as Triax's
prisoner, and have his brain installed in an imp's head in a gruesome experiment
by this crazed madman. Or rather than suffer that awful fate, he could raise his
icer to his head and take his own life.

It did not take Sprake long to make the decision.

Epilogue

Why me, Finn asked himself. Why is it always me?

He knew, of course. One reason only. He was the best.

The Columbus Force had a crack squad of highly trained
individuals who were called upon whenever a particularly critical problem had to
be resolved. They had each spent ten years receiving a thorough training in as
many skills as the Force could drive into them.

Mike Finn was the best the squad had to offer. When Commander
Sprake's terrifying reports were broadcast, Finn was returning from a mission in
the same star quadrant as Phoebus. He was immediately ordered to change course.
A senior Force admiral gave him an intensive briefing over the Spacelink. Finn
informed his superior officer that, in the course of his recent mission, he had
lost most of his weapons. The admiral insisted that he undertake the task
nevertheless; back-up could follow from Earth. His mission: to travel to
Phoebus, to rescue any Force survivors, and to overpower Triax...

Now Finn was in his compact ship, insulated by a forcefield that
prevented detection, on a top speed course for Phoebus. He looked out at the
universe. Somewhere out there was his home, the majestic globe of Earth. It was
just another planet, Finn thought. How small. How insignificant. To think down
there we get worked up over things that you realise, when you get up here, just
mean nothing... his mind turned to his latest mission. Save our people, kill the
aggressors, oh and while you're at it find out the meaning of life, Mike old
man...

Finn turned his thoughts away from the Earth and looked through
his front screen at the panoramic immensity of space, a black sea as beautiful
as life and as silent as death. Somewhere up ahead was the planet Phoebus. Finn
gritted his teeth. He had a job to do.